Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Barry Goes to Jerusalem

Dome of the Rock - Jerusalem

By Alan
Caruba

On March
20-21, the world will be treated to President Obama’s first visit to Israel
since he was elected in 2009.

Here’s
what he will do:

"The
President will examine the Iron Dome missile defense system, meet with Israeli
President Shimon Peres, and hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, after which they will hold a joint press conference and have dinner
together."

"On Thursday,
the President will visit the Israel Museum, where he will see the Dead Sea
Scrolls and a technology exhibit put together by Israeli universities. He will
then travel to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He will then return to Jerusalem and give a speech to students at the
International Convention Center, which will be followed by a state dinner with
President Peres."

"On Friday,
President Obama will lay wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak
Rabin and then meet with an Israeli opposition leader at Yad Vashem, before
concluding his trip with a visit to the Church of the Nativity."

It will
generate a torrent of reporting and analysis regarding the content of his
speeches and anything else he may say or do. This, however, is a President who
lies about everything. The Israeli leaders know that and the Palestinians
likely will have even less confidence in whatever he tells them. For decades
they have resisted any two-state relationship with Israel, vowing to destroy it
whether the threats come from the Palestinian Authority or the Iranian proxy Hamas.

The
Palestinians have little support from the nations in the region.

As noted
Israeli authority, Barry Rubin, the director of the Global Research in
International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of
International Affairs, recently wrote, “the Palestinian torpedoing of peace
between 1993 and 2000 has been forgotten.” There have never been any good faith
negotiations by the Palestinians and the more militant Hamas has never ceased
from rocketing Israel from its base in Gaza. Israel has long since abandoned
its hopes of “land for peace.”

The one
thing Obama does not want to do is to let the U.S. get dragged into another war
in the Middle East. His predecessor, whom he has finally stopped blaming for
his own failures, did not fare well with either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars.

The lesson
has not been lost on Obama who “led from behind” in Libya only to find himself
mired in the Benghazi scandal. The other nations, Tunisia and Egypt are in
turmoil as the Muslim Brotherhood struggles to establish itself as their
governments. The president of Afghanistan has taken to claiming that the U.S.
is working with the Taliban.

In short,
the Middle East is a minefield and has been ever since Israel declared its
sovereignty in 1948. That event has been blamed for all of its problems, but
the problem is Islamic arrogance and intransigence. Israel isn’t going to go
away. It was there 3,000 years ago and, by the grace of God, it is there today.

The civil
war raging in Syria is a concern for Israel as well as other neighboring
states. No doubt Obama will make some reference to the emergence of democracy
there, but this has not occurred with any success in Iraq, Egypt, or Tunisia.
With the exception of Lebanon that was once a democratic nation Arabs have no
experience with democracy and little inclination to make it work. Iran is ruled
by a cabal of ayatollahs.

No doubt
President Obama will repeat his assertion that the U.S. will never accept a
nuclear Iran, but he will. Sanctions and “containment” are not going to work.

“The
reality is, however,” says Rubin, “that Obama will continue to deny that his
strategy is one of containing Iran but rather of preventing Iran from getting
nuclear weapons. That will go on until Iran gets nuclear weapons and Obama
switches to a containment strategy.”

Rubin
writes, “Personally, I don’t believe that Obama will ever attack Iranian
nuclear facilities or support such an Israeli operation.” If history is any
guide, the Israelis will act unilaterally as they did when they destroyed
Iraq’s and Syria’s nuclear reactors.

Israel is
not only surrounded by nations that have attacked it in the past, but which
continue to hate its existence. It also exists in a world where anti-Semitism
is widespread, particularly in the nations of the European Union. Ironically,
Americans may be the only real friends it has and that is because
Americans—Christians—are major supporters of Israel.

The
nations of the Middle East have seen, since 9/11, what U.S. intervention has
done to them or their neighbors and they don’t like it. Billions spent for
nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan has been squandered and, in 2009, then
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $900 million in aid to the
Palestinian Authority, including $300 million for rebuilding Hamas-controlled
Gaza. More recently, more millions have been pledged to Egypt.

None of it
has improved the opinion of the U.S. in the region. None of this has been lost
on the current Israeli leadership

Whatever
promises Obama makes to the Israeli leaders, whatever he says publicly, will be
for the consumption of Americans back home and for those in the region, but the
most duplicitous President to ever hold that office will not be trusted there
and should not be trusted here.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.